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Smoking gun

SWITCHING to low-tar cigarettes does not reduce the risks that smokers
run of heart attacks, according to a new study reported in the New England
Journal of Medicine. The study, conducted among more than 900 women admitted
to hospital with a first heart attack, and 2400 controls, found that smokers
of both high and low-tar cigarettes were four times as likely to suffer
heart attacks as those who had never smoked.

Low-tar cigarettes do appear to reduce the risks that smokers run from
lung and other cancers but, the researchers from the Slone Epidemiology
Unit at Boston University’s Medical School concluded: ‘For smokers who wish
to reduce their risk, switching to low-yield brands is a poor alternative
to quitting.’